Friendship, Love, & War Author's Note updated pg 97 - Page 44

such a sizzling update Ruva 😉

pratap sneaking in dorms ☺️ wearing sleepin wear...

amazing update RuVa...👏

Originally posted by: Annei123

such a sizzling update Ruva 😉

hope we get more of Praja romance😳

do update soon

I'm so glad you liked it Shivangi!! 😳😳

You will get more romance 😉

Update is coming right up! 😊

Love,

RuVa

Originally posted by: aditi_angel

pratap sneaking in dorms ☺️ wearing sleepin wear...

u made me gooo...☺️☺️☺️

but stupid couple ...

dusro ke baare me bata rhe hai that : they like each other "

khud kab bologe ...🤔

but amazing update ruva jaan 🤗

update soon , dear...😳

Aww... thank you so much sweetie!! 🤗

And they are a little buddhu couple 😆😆😆

Update is coming right up! 😳

Love,
RuVa

Originally posted by: Suranya_Titli

She is my darling online imported baby sister courtesy praja magic. Haha.

Haha!! I like the way you described your relationship! 😆😆👏

Originally posted by: rashi04

amazing update RuVa...👏

do update soon...i'm waiting..

Hi Rashi!! Thank you so much for commenting, darling! 😳😳

Update is coming right up! 😊

Love,
RuVa

Hello amazing, awesome people!

So, I'm here with the next update for Friendship, Love, & War. Now, you may wonder why I'm updating so quickly - the honest answer is 1)because PrAja wouldn't leave me alone till I wrote this and 2) because the update after this one will not be until next week, most likely by Tuesday.

In the meantime, I will look forward to reading your comments and criticisms!

So please read and review, if you can! 😊

Chapter 47

Recap

Ajab couldn't help it as she crossed the distance between the door to her bed in a couple of steps, but she didn't sit down. Instead, she said, "Hey... it's okay. I'm sure you only came here because you thought whatever you had to say was important. You would never do this otherwise. So, why don't you tell me why you were looking for me?"

Her words seem to calm him a little as he looked up at her and said, "It's about Sau. And Chak." Ajab suddenly felt like she knew what he was going to say next.

"They like each other", both said simultaneously.

Pratap's head was already full of questions, What am I doing here?', Why is there a flutter in my heart every time Ajab looks at me? What's wrong with me?', Hey Eklingji! What must she think of me? First the play entry scene and now showing up, like this, to talk to her so late in the night? And now she's stuck with me in her room!! Why am I such an idiot?'

The last thought had made him apologise to her as soon as he sat down in her room. But her words comforted him a little. When she asked him what he wanted to talk about he had just taken Sau and Chak's name and then they both said the same thing. Both of their best friends liked each other.

"You knew?", Pratap asked surprised.

"Nope... well, not really. I didn't know what it meant till Phool pointed it out and then it became clear...", Ajab said.

Pratap thought she looked a little nervous. Was she uncomfortable? Idiot! She's standing in her own room, looking like she doesn't belong! You can at least budge over, so she can sit down!'

"Ajab... please sit down", he said, moving over, giving her room to sit next to him.

"Oh.. n..no. That's okay. I'm fine", she answered, looking more nervous, if anything.

"I'm not. I already feel terribly guilty for putting you in this situation at all... and you standing there looking like you don't belong in your room is making me feel even more guilty... If you are not comfortable with .. I mean, I know you are not comfortable with this.. I'll leave immediately", he added, making to stand, but Ajab stopped him.

"No.. no please. It's not that. I.. I'm not uncomfortable... I just... It's nothing. Here, I'll sit down", she said and sat next to him.

There was that flutter again! As soon as Ajab sat down next to him, Pratap felt it... right near his heart...

"So.. what do you think about Sau and Chak? And how did you find out?", Ajab asked.

"Ven, Som, Patta, and Akbar pointed it out.. but like you said, I too had my suspicions, but just wasn't sure before that", Pratap answered.

"What do you think we should do? Should we or should we not help them realise their feelings for each other", she asked, looking at him through her lashes, and Pratap was sure he felt his heart thud inside his chest. He could swear that Ajab's words carried another meaning than the most obvious one, but he couldn't be sure.

He swallowed. "Urm... I think we should...er.. you know .. not be overt about it, but we can... create situations... to help them along the path of realisation", Pratap managed to answer.

"Okay.. and how do you propose we do that?", Ajab asked.

Again, without his permission, Pratap's heart thudded loudly at the word propose' coming from Ajab, but he shook off this thought. "I ... I have a plan...", Pratap answered, forcing himself to look away from Ajab for a moment.

You see, like Pratap, Ajab was already dressed down for the night. She wore a simple long white cotton kurti and leggings. When they sneaked into her room, they could not switch on the room lights, or they would alert the patrol. The light filtering in through glass window from one of the perimeter lamps outside, lit up Ajab's face in a soft orange light making her delicate frame look soft and bathed in gold... Her hair was open and swept to one side and there was a stubborn strand of hair that kept dancing across her face in the cool breeze. He wondered if she knew how beautiful she looked, or had even the slightest idea of how mesmerising her eyes were, and the effect she had on him.

Pratap had also noticed Ajab's slight shiver while she stood, meaning she was a little cold. But after she sat next to him, she had stopped shivering. He was not going to read into that, he thought to himself pointedly.

Besides, that stray lock of hair was really begging him to tuck it away. Pratap inter-locked his fingers ahead of him. He needed to focus.

"Okay... what is it?", Ajab asked. So Pratap began carefully avoiding looking at Ajab for too long.

An hour later

"Well... that could work!", Ajab said.

"Hmmm...", Pratap said. He had come to the conclusion that he needed to leave Ajab's room, very very soon. The way his heart was thumping, Pratap was soon going to start having trouble speaking in coherent sentences if he stayed so close to Ajab too long.

"But... what if it doesnt?", Ajab asked looking at him with her innocent eyes slightly wide with worry.

"Er.. well then, I'll just show up for another long moon-lit chat in your room again", he said without thinking.

Ajab's eyes went fully wide at that and Pratap nearly hit his head against the glass window for his stupidity. But then, Ajab's eyes took the bright spark that prefaced her laughter and she started to shake with quiet laughter. Pratap laughed too, in return, easing some of the tension that had been building since they had met tonight.

When they stopped laughing, Pratap said, "I should go."

"How? The patrols are still on - they go on through the night. And there's no way of knowing who you will bump into!", Ajab asked worried.

"I know... I wasn't talking about walking out the main door Ajab.. I will climb down through the window", he said.

"We are on the first floor! You could get hurt", Ajab protested.

"I'll be fine, I promise. Trust me?", Pratap asked.

Ajab nodded.

Pratap slid open the window all the way and climbed out the window ledge. He reached out and jumped down to lower window ledge with ease and then the last one onto the ground. Ajab wondered if it was normal to find someone's ability to climb down like a spider attractive, but she was not going to put too much thought into it. At least, not right now.

He looked up to see Ajab watching him, smiled at her, and walked off to the boys' dormitories after giving her a wink. At least Ajab thought he gave her a wink. Her heart had skipped a beat at it, so she was quite sure...

She sighed as sat down on same spot on her bed where Pratap had been sitting a few moments ago. Smiling to herself, she curled up on her bed, under the comforter. Her bed felt unusually warm and comfortable tonight.

Chapter 48

One week later

When Pratap and Ajab had taken up the responsibility of making Sau and Chak realise their feelings for each other, they had NOT foreseen all the complications in their plans. For example, everytime, Pratap tried to surreptitiously bring up Sau in conversation with Chak, he would find an excuse to get away from it.

Everytime Ajab tried to ask Sau anything involving Chak, she would quickly change the subject. The upshot of it all was that they had both, not made much progress on that front. Every attempt to get the two of them to stay together for five minutes had been effectively thwarted by Sau and Chak.

But enough was enough. Subtlety was clearly NOT the way to go with them. They had their Diwali vacations beginning in a week. They had to come up with a drastic plan of action, Pratap had decided. So they had asked all their friends for help.

"Are you sure this is going to work, Pratap?", Ajab asked, looking a little worried as they crouched down under the broken seats lying around in the dark storage room.

"It has to, we have no other choice", Pratap answered with determination.

A few feet away, Aks and Patta were crouched behind old storage boxes hoping to see some results too. They would happily settle for either couple for now.

They all went into a pin-drop silence as they heard Chak and Sau enter the store room. As per the plan, the door of the room shut behind them. At first neither of them noticed, as they both quietly went about collecting the stuff that they had been carefully given a list for, this morning, by Pratap and Som respectively.

They had to be very careful to not look like they wanted Chak and Sau to come here together. It had to seem like coincidence. Akbar, Ven, and Phool had taken charge of that.

As they finished collecting the items on the list they both walked to the door and tried to get it open. They pushed, and pulled, and called out. Ven had surreptitiously taken away Chak's radio so he couldn't call anyone.

Pratap, Ajab, Akbar, and Patta were all positioned inside the store room, hidden from the view of Sau and Chak so they could take any necessary action, if things really seemed to go south. After ten minutes of trying to get the door to open, Sau and Chak started to panic.

"No.. no! No! This can't be happening! I can't get stuck in dark room, alone, with you!", Sau said, sounding so anxious that Ajab wanted to get up and go over to comfort her, but Pratap put his hand on hers and shook his head no'.

She sat back down, slowly.

"What? What does that mean? What kind of a guy do you think I am?", Chak asked Sau, his voice full of hurt.

Before Sau could answere, he walked away and slid down next to a cupboard in the room. He held his head in hands and then sighed. "Just give me a minute, please. I'll think of something... I promise you will not have to stay here with me any longer than you have to", he said, still sounding hurt, but determined to get out.

"What?!", Sau asked. "No.. that's not what I... I didn't mean that I want to get away from you or that .. you know... I don't trust you...", Sau said, now sounding a little helpless.

"No? Then what did you mean?", Chak asked, sounding a little angry.

"Er.. I just.. It's just... I mean..", Sau stammered and stuttered to give a reply but apparently could not bring herself to say anything.

Chak spoke up instead, "It's alright Sau. You don't have to say anything. I know what you are going to say. I'm sure you already know that I like you... a lot. And ever since you realised that, you have been trying to get as far away from me as possible. I know that's my fault. I could not hide my feelings... even Bhaujiraaj noticed! But just because I like you does not mean that you have to like me back like that... And I'm sorry for snapping at you. I just didn't think that I made you so uncomfortable."

There was a stunned silence following Chak's monologue. A long moment later, Sau's voice broke the silence, "What?!"

Chak's confused expression only seemed to infuriate her further, "Why are you looking at me like that? Is this any way to propose to a girl, Mr. Chak Mishra? And why on earth would you think that I don't like you? Did you ever stop to think that may be I was not running away because I don't like you, but because it is the exact opposite! I like you too much, and every time I'm near you, I start blabbering nonsense embarrassing myself!", Sau finished sounding like she was tearing up.

They all heard a quick couple of steps and then Chak's voice, "What did you just say?"

"I'm so not repeating that!", Sau said, still sounding teary.

"No.. please... Sau. I'm sorry. I'm an idiot, I shouldn't have assumed... Please, forgive me. They are right, boys have very limited abilities when it comes to understanding the heart of a girl...", he said, frantic.

His words calmed Sau down and bit, in fact, she started to laugh. "I agree. You are an idiot", she said, her words carrying her smile.

Chak laughed too. He then took a deep breath and asked, "Yup... and will you go out with this idiot, Ms. Sau Pandit?"

Sau answered with a shy nod and walked into Chak's open arms to give him a sweet hug.

Behind the boxes, Akbar and Patta cheered and as they got up to congratulate Sau and Chak. Hidden behind the seats, Ajab had been waiting with bated breath, holding onto Pratap's hands tightly, in her nervousness. Peeping through the gap, when she saw Sau's response, both Pratap and her said "Yes!", standing up at the same time. Before she could think about what she was doing, Ajab put her arms around Pratap giving him a tight hug, she was so happy!

Pratap was stunned. Before he could react however, Ajab realised what she had done, and stepped back almost immediately looking up at him with eyes wide with disbelief. She could not believe she just did that! She saw the same disbelief and another emotion in his eyes. She would describe that as an expression of surprise and happiness.

"Dee, Kunwarsa? You can come out too, now!", Aks voice called.

Ajab moved out from the seats and started to walk away from Pratap. She hugged Sau happily and smiled at Chak. Pratap joined her an instant later, hugging Chak and smiling and Sau. Chak and Sau were both blushing and smiling happily, after realising that their friends had set this up so they could confess their feelings for each other. The doors opened to reveal Phool, Ven, and Som who also came in to congratulate their friends.

Amidst the giggles, and laughter, and the teasing that followed, everyone missed the way Pratap's eyes were looking deep into Ajab's and the blush on her face that would not let her look at Pratap for a long time, but she couldn't help it when her eyes kept finding his, every few moments. They also missed the way Pratap face broke into a slow smile, that had nothing to do with the happiness for his friends when he saw Ajab drop her eyes to the ground and nervously touch her neck as the blush spread to it.

So, how was it?


Love and creativity,
RuVa

Resss
Will comment after the episode...
But I'm still your firstie ok 🤪

RESSS